T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY This residence at 501 N. 1st Ave. is one of four acquired through the 657A or nuisance/tax sale process that the Marshalltown city council voted unanimously to move forward with demolishing during Monday night’s meeting.

Near the end of Monday night’s meeting, the Marshalltown city council engaged in a discussion on offloading seven city-owned lots that were previously designated for housing projects as well as moving forward with demolishing dilapidated homes on four properties currently owned by the city.

As City Clerk Alicia Hunter explained, the city could not act as the developer on its own projects, and officials were not able to find outside developers able to perform the desired work within the established parameters. The city then discontinued its application for state funding, and the seven lots initially chosen for the Community Development Block Grant — located at 506 E. Boone St., 506 N. 2nd St., 101 E. Ferner St., 702 Swayze St., 510 E. Main St., 817 N. 5th Ave. and 411 W. Linn St. — have sat empty with no activity since then.

Hunter said the staff was looking for direction on proceeding with a sealed bid process in three different rounds. As Mayor Joel Greer opened the discussion up for council comments, Councilor Mike Ladehoff said he hated to see the projects go as he felt they were “a really good idea.”

“We can’t get contractors to build houses, so I’m in favor of just turning around and just putting them up for sealed bids like we do the other ones. I wish it would’ve worked out differently, but at some point you’ve gotta move on,” Ladehoff said.

Fellow Councilor Barry Kell asked if he could call an “audible” and change direction because he wasn’t aware of any building occurring on the lots the city previously sold.

“I think we need to think a little bit more holistically on what the future of some of these larger lots look like vs. the sealed bid proposal,” he said.

In response, Councilor Gary Thompson said he “knew for a fact” that some of the lots the city had sold would be built on in the near future, and he knew of bidders eager to build on the lots the council was currently discussing.

“There is some movement to build on these lots, and I do agree that we need to let these go,” he said.

A motion from Ladehoff to proceed with disposing of the lots by a sealed bid process passed by a 6-1 tally with Kell as the lone dissenting vote. From there, Public Works Director Heather Thomas, filling in for the housing and community development department, moved onto the next discussion item about four properties the city acquired through the 657A or nuisance/tax sale process — 501 N. 1st Ave., 704 Lee St., 915 S. Center St. and 919 S. Center St.

In the past, Thomas said, the city has obtained the parcels, hired a consultant, put together a demolition contract, hired a contractor to demolish the structures and then accepted sealed bids for the lots. So far, both Thomas and Hunter have received inquiries from individuals interested in purchasing the properties as they are.

“There’s some pros and cons there. These are properties that have been an eyesore, a nuisance, a safety concern in some cases, and our code enforcement has gotten to a point where they weren’t able to enforce the code and that’s why it went the 657A route,” Thomas said. “So in some discussion with the city attorney, I asked what options we might have.”

She noted that there was a potential to attach a clause in a sale requiring the buyers to do something to bring them back to an occupancy level in a certain timeframe — if that doesn’t happen, the properties would revert back to the city. The purchasers could also choose to demolish the lots themselves.

As Thomas sought council direction, she also suggested other stipulations such as ensuring that the eligible bidder did not have more than two code enforcement violations within the last 12 months to prevent the homes from falling into the wrong hands. Councilor Greg Nichols said all but one of the homes looked like they simply needed to be demolished, but he did like the idea of someone buying the properties as is to save demolition costs and the time of city staff.

“I tried to estimate what it costs the city for one of these types of properties. There’s costs with the city attorney as far as the 657A process. Once we get one of these properties in our hands, we usually send a nuisance abatement contractor to take care of some of the exterior issues right off the bat. Usually, there’s a fair amount of junk on the property or trees that need to be removed. We usually board up the building, so there’s some costs there that the city has sunk into it,” Thomas said.

Her best guess, she concluded, was that it would cost the city around $40,000 per property when all is said and done. Ladehoff asked for clarification on the minimum housing standards, and Thomas responded that the property maintenance code contained some guidelines.

“If somebody wants to purchase it and rebuild it, that’s fine, but I think they’re gonna have to follow that minimum housing standard. And that is just doors, windows, siding, a roof,” Ladehoff said.

Mitchell wondered what a reasonable timeframe would look like for rehabilitating the properties, and Thompson asked Thomas which properties she’d received inquiries about so far — 501 N. 1st Ave. and 915 S. Center St. were the two.

“As much as I want to see these houses saved, I just can’t believe that this isn’t a landlord buying it to rent it out because you’re talking about foundation problems (and) everything else,” Thompson said. “As much as I want to save these, as much as I want to save the taxpayers money, if we sell these, they’re gonna get a lawyer, it’s gonna be a landlord, and we’re gonna be fighting the process no matter what we lay out and what they sign… I think we’re just prolonging an issue. I think these four houses need to be torn down. That’s where I stand.”

Greer warned that in addition to landlords, individuals could purchase the homes, sell them on contract and have them “boomerang back” into their possession every year or two, and Thomas said such a maneuver would not be allowed. Schneider indicated his agreement with Thompson and would like to see the homes torn down.

A motion from Ladehoff to proceed with tearing down the houses passed by a unanimous 7-0 vote, and Thomas said she would be making a call to have WHKS continue with the demolition contract the following day.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.